The Israeli government is currently preparing a blacklist of the local and international organisations and activists who call for boycotting Israeli institutions, products and events, local media sources revealed yesterday.

It’s an old story: a scholar criticizes Israel (harshly or haltingly, it doesn’t really matter). In many cases, nobody pays attention. Sometimes, though, pro-Israel groups catch wind of the offense, at which point any number of things can happen: sanctimony, abuse, outrage, blacklisting, ostracism.

Members of Congress are currently considering a bill that threatens to silence the growing support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement for Palestinian freedom and human rights, known as B.D.S.

For years I have remained silent as Gerald Steinberg and NGO Monitor have harassed anti-occupation groups in Israel-Palestine, spreading falsehoods about us in order to shut us down. Now is the time to speak out.

I write about my experience of Beirut with great trepidation, because I know that every observation will produce hundreds of exclusions. Instead of trying to quantify the place, I want to politicize the city. Doing so will give readers a reason to be angry with me, which is the kind of concrete reaction Beirut has earned.

Civil rights groups argue “anti-Israel boycott” bill would violate First Amendment rights, while supporters say the bill is narrowly tailored and represents a minor amendment to current law.

Ramzy BAROUD: "‘The Palestine Exception’: War on BDS is Now a War on American Democracy" (The Palestine Chronicle, Aug 9, 2017): click here!

There is something immoral in Washington D.C., and its consequences can be dire for many people, particularly for the health of US democracy. The US government is declaring war on the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Today, a coalition of ten national civil and human rights organizations sent a joint statement to members of Congress expressing strong opposition to the Israel Anti-Boycott Act and calling on lawmakers to reject - rather than amend - the bill.

Last month, Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon made a disgusting and dangerous speech to the media outside the Security Council. In it, he continued a long-running campaign of incitement and hatred against human rights organisations...

Prefatory Note: Below is an Open Letter prepared under the direction of Vida Samiian of State University of California at Fresno on behalf of California scholars defending against any effort to abridge academic freedom anywhere in the world, but particularly in California and the United States (Richard Falk).

Michael Schaeffer OMER-MAN: "America's BDS law is an attack on far more than free speech" (+972, July 21, 2017): click here!

The world long ago made clear to the Palestinians that violence is not a legitimate path for seeking independence. Now Congress is trying to criminalize one of the few nonviolent tools left.

The criminalization of political speech and activism against Israel has become one of the gravest threats to free speech in the West. In France, activists have been arrested and prosecuted for wearing T-shirts advocating a boycott of Israel.

An Israeli bill aimed at exempting Israel’s attempts at combating the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and efforts to “delegitimize Israel” from Israel’s Freedom of Information Law, which allows Israeli citizens to obtain information from the government, passed its first reading in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, on Monday.

An alarming number of South African Christians en-route to Palestine and the Holy Land are increasingly being denied entry by the State of Israel. In particular, South African Christian volunteers, part of the World Council of Churches EAPPI program, are being denied entrance by Israel into Palestine.

The Danish Foreign Ministry has begun to re-examine its funding to Palestinian nonprofits in the occupied territory following pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who urged Danish leaders to cut donations to Palestinian organizations supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement and those “inciting” against Israel, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.

Throughout the month of May, members of the Modern Language Association, the largest professional society of humanities scholars in the United States, will be voting on a resolution which—in contrast to other scholarly associations—seeks to ban the association from endorsing of the Palestinian call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

A leaked report, endorsed by the Israeli government, has revealed the name of a top official crucial to the fight against the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. Obtained by The Electronic Intifada, the report lists Shai Har-Zvi as “Director of Intelligence” at the Ministry of Strategic affairs – Israel’s anti-BDS ministry.

Key Israel lobby groups have conceded that they have failed to counter the Palestine solidarity movement, despite vastly increasing their spending. The admission is contained in a secret report that The Electronic Intifada has obtained.

The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel is winning, a top anti-BDS strategist has conceded. At the “Ambassadors Against BDS” conference in New York last month, former Israeli government advisor Gidi Grinstein said that “in 2016 our community probably invested 20 times … more resources in dealing with this problem compared to what we invested in 2010.”

"Israel denies head of Palestinian Federation of Chile entry into West Bank" (Ma'an, April 10, 2017): click here!

Israeli authorities reportedly prevented the head of the Palestinian Federation of Chile, Anwar Makhlouf, who holds Chilean citizenship, from entering the country through the King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge border crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Bank on Monday.

Israel and its surrogates suffered a significant defeat last week, when a federal court in Washington, DC, threw out a key claim in a lawsuit against the American Studies Association for its resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed cohorts of Israel loyalists in the United States by video link last week at the annual conference of Aipac, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Ramzy BAROUD: "The next phase in the war on BDS: Why Israel detained Omar Barghouti" (Ma'an, March 30, 2017): click here!

The Israeli state has violated international law more than any other country, yet has rarely, if ever, been held accountable for its crimes and misconduct.

Judy MALTZ: "Jewish Group Releases Blacklist of U.S. Professors Who Back Academic Boycott of Israel" (Haaretz, March 30, 2017): click here!

AMCHA's list, which includes hundreds of names, comes weeks after Israel barred entry to supporters of boycott. 'Knesset travel ban is toothless, unless there are lists,' professor says.

J"Don’t Punish Protest – Open Letter to the University of Manchester" (BDSUOM, March 27, 2017): click here!

Dear Dame Nancy and Dr Redmond, Two of our students from the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement are facing disciplinary hearings this week (29th March) due to carrying out a banner drop on the Samuel Alexander building which read ‘Stop Arming Israel’.

The Strategic Affairs Ministry's leaders see themselves as the heads of a commando unit, gathering and disseminating information about 'supporters of the delegitimization of Israel' – and they prefer their actions be kept secret.

Richard SILVERSTEIN: "Israel couldn't get the BDS founder on anything else. So they went with taxes" (Middle East Eye, March 22, 2017): click here!

What a clever way to destroy the career of a Palestinian activist. He founded an international movement, BDS, so arresting him for espionage or on a political pretext would invoke the world's wrath on Israel.

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed an amendment into law on Monday evening forbidding entry into Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory to foreigners calling for a boycott of Israel, Israeli media reported.

Chemi SHALEV: "The New Anti-boycott Law Is anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish" (Haaretz, March 7, 2017): click here!

Frustrated by their failure to annex, right wingers exact a price tag from opponents of Jewish presence in the West Bank.

The Knesset gave its final approval Monday evening to a bill that forbids granting entry visas or residency rights to foreign nationals who call for economic, cultural or academic boycotts of either Israel or the settlements.

"These are outrageous interferences with free expression, and are direct attacks on academic freedom. As academics with positions at UK universities, we wish to express our dismay at this attempt to silence campus discussion about Israel, including its violation of the rights of Palestinians for more than 50 years. It is with disbelief that we witness explicit political interference in university affairs in the interests of Israel under the thin disguise of concern about antisemitism."

Last week the Jewish Labour Movement announced that Guardian columnist Owen Jones will be the big name speaker at an event the group is holding on 2 April. Jones will lecture on “left anti-Semitism, the Middle East and the Labour Party.”

I have to speak out against the smear campaign waged in Germany against Farid Esack, an Islamic studies professor from South Africa. When Israel’s supporters learned that Esack had been given a teaching post at the University of Hamburg, they made baseless allegations of anti-Semitism against him.

srael’s UK ambassador and his allies in the British government viewed a 2014 row over the sponsorship of a film festival as a key battle against the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, according to documents released under freedom of information rules.

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation will decide Sunday whether to support a bill that would let the Council for Higher Education reduce state funding to an academic institution if a lecturer calls for a boycott of Israel.

When journalist Marcus Dysch reported on an April 2014 gathering at London’s Hilton Metropole hotel, involving the leaders of pro-Israel organizations from 25 different countries, he called it a “secret” conference. Evidently not a very well-kept secret.

The Knesset is likely to give final approval Monday evening to a bill that would forbid granting entry visas or residency rights to foreign nationals who call for economic, cultural or academic boycotts of either Israel or the settlements.

A Berlin-based teacher is being pilloried for daring to speak the truth. The Jerusalem Post recently quoted an accusation that the academic Eleonora Roldán Mendívil was an anti-Semite. The newspaper failed, however, to provide any evidence that would support that claim – made by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a pro-Israel group.

Three demonstrators who participated in a 2014 protest in Antwerp, Belgium against the attack on the Gaza Strip were called before the court in Antwerp on 24 January. They are charged with incitement to racism against the Jewish community in Antwerp, not based on independent findings by the police, but instead on a complaint filed by supporters of Israel.

In July 2014, at the height of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, Spain’s RESCOP launched a national campaign targeting local cultural institutions, businesses and associations, asking that they declare themselves “free of Israeli apartheid.” That effort has since grown, in both size and kind. Today, there are more than 50 participating cities and towns across the country.

An Israeli university has hosted a hasbara hackathon, which saw students gather to create ways to improve Israel’s image and undermine the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. The ‘iHack’ event, held at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, is the latest example of Israeli students and institutions of higher education enlisting themselves in Israel’s global PR offensive.

On Sunday, Israeli Public Security and Strategic Affairs Minister and Israeli Interior Minister agreed, during a meeting, to create a new measure preventing the entry into Israel of foreign activists being part of organisations boycotting Israel.

Israel has officially refused to renew the travel document of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement co-founder Omar Barghouti in a move that amounts to a travel ban and is an escalation of its attacks on Palestinian human rights defenders who nonviolently advocate for Palestinian rights under international law.

Without knives or missiles but with an explosive payload consisting of outrageous lies – genocide, apartheid and crimes against humanity – the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is conquering a growing number of strongholds in Europe, the United States and elsewhere. From the campuses of California to the supermarkets of Paris, the academic, economic and cultural boycott is becoming a palpable threat to the international status of the State of Israel.

Israel Hayom newspaper reported: "Israel is facing a campaign to de-legitimise it. It penetrates into a certain extent; up to the secretary-general of the United Nations," noting that it is a new battle in its "own stadium: the cyber space".

Addressing a special meeting of the Knesset’s Science and Technology Committee, aimed at discussing the impact of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement on Israeli academia, academics and politicians alike sounded the alarm bells.

"Reasonably well informed people, averagely sensitive and equipped with an intuitive sense of justice, find it increasingly difficult to remain indifferent to Israel’s conduct. The occupation, now nearing its 50th year, has turned Gaza, and to a lesser extent the West Bank, into de facto detention zones. It humiliates millions of Palestinians, robs them of meaningful citizenship, and violates their human rights on a daily basis.

"Israel sets up special ministry to tackle BDS" (Middle East Monitor, November 4, 2015): click here!

"For the BDS campaign’s narrative of Israel as a radically essentialized evil to work, those most amenable to nuance and dialogue – like Israeli academics and my late friend Edward Said - must be the first to be boycotted".

Starting in April 1933, German academics actively colluded in the dismissal of their own Jewish colleagues, under the Nazi Law for the Re-Establishment of the Professional Civil Service. So did the activists of the National Socialist Students’ League which, long before the Nazis came to power, organised boycotts of, and disturbances in, lectures given by Jewish academics.

Gideon LEVY: "So These Are Israel's New Heroes?"Israel's recent military operations in Palestinian hospitals are a blatant violation of the Geneva Convention, and make you wonder how low the country can sink (Haaretz, Nov 21, 2015).

Noam SHEIZAF: "Jerusalem, in context"(+972, October 19, 2015). "The current events in Jerusalem have a political history and context. Attempts to attribute the violence to some kind of Palestinian pathology while ignoring other factors is a recipe for making things worse."